Technologies for global health Howitt, Peter, MA; Darzi, Ara, Prof; Yang, Guang-Zhong, Prof ...
The Lancet (British edition),
08/2012, Volume:
380, Issue:
9840
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Mechanical ventilation and intravenous sedation were initiated. Because of continuing spasms, intrathecal baclofen (1200 µg per day) was started on day 3 with a good clinical response. No ...recommendations about tetanus prophylaxis procedures for wound man agement in patients with blood diseases are available, except for bone-marrow transplantation.
Obstetric Anesthesia Workforce Surveys were conducted in 1981, 1992, and 2001, and the 10-year update was conducted in 2012. Anesthesia providers from US hospitals were surveyed to identify the ...methods used to provide obstetric anesthesia. Our primary hypothesis was that the provision of obstetric anesthesia services has changed in the past 10 years.
A sample of hospitals was generated based on the number of births per year and US census region. Strata were defined as follows: I ≥ 1500 annual births (n = 341), II ≥ 500 to 1499 annual births (n = 438), and III < 500 annual births (n = 414). Contact email information for the anesthesia provider in charge of obstetric services was obtained by phone call. Electronic questionnaires were sent through email.
Administration of neuraxial (referred to as "regional" in previous surveys) labor analgesia was available 24 hours per day in all stratum I hospitals responding to the survey. Respondents across all strata reported high rates of in-house coverage, with 86.3% (95% confidence interval CI = 82.7%-90%) of stratum I providers reporting that they provided in-house anesthesiology services for obstetrics. The use of patient-controlled epidural analgesia in stratum I hospitals was reported to be 35% in 2001 and 77.6% (95% CI = 73.2%-82.1%) in this survey. Independent Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists were reported to provide obstetric anesthesia services in 68% (95% CI = 57.9%-77.0%) of stratum III hospitals. Although 76% (95% CI = 71.2%-80.3%) of responding stratum I hospitals allow postpartum tubal ligations, 14% report inadequate staffing to provide anesthesia either always or at off-hours.
Since 2001, there have been significant changes in how responding hospitals provide obstetric anesthesia care and staff the labor and delivery ward. Obstetric anesthesia surveys, updated every 10 years, continue to provide information about changes in obstetric anesthesia practice.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, responsible for 17.5 million deaths every year, of which 80% occur in low- and middle-income countries. Some 75% of the world does not ...have access to cardiac surgery when needed because of lack of infrastructure, human resources, and financial coverage. This study aims to map access to cardiac surgery around the world.
A scoping review was done on access to cardiac surgery for an undifferentiated population. Workforce data were collected from the Cardiothoracic Surgery Network database and used to calculate numbers and ratios of adult and pediatric cardiac surgeons to population.
A total of 12,180 adult cardiac surgeons and 3858 pediatric cardiac surgeons were listed in the Cardiothoracic Surgery Network in August 2017, equaling 1.64 (0-181.82) adult cardiac surgeons and 0.52 (0-25.97) pediatric cardiac surgeons per million population globally. Large disparities existed between regions, ranging from 0.12 adult cardiac surgeons and 0.08 pediatric cardiac surgeons per million population (sub-Saharan Africa) to 11.12 adult cardiac surgeons and 2.08 pediatric cardiac surgeons (North America). Low-income countries possessed 0.04 adult cardiac surgeons and 0.03 pediatric cardiac surgeons per million population, compared with 7.15 adult cardiac surgeons and 1.67 pediatric cardiac surgeons in high-income countries.
This study maps the current global state of access to cardiac surgery. Disparities exist between and within world regions, with a positive correlation between a nation's economic status and access to cardiac surgery. Low early mortality rates in low-resource settings suggest the possibility of high-quality cardiac surgery in low- and middle-income countries. There is the need to increase human and physical resources, while focusing on safety, quality, and efficiency to improve access to cardiac surgery for the 4.5 billion people without.
Summary Conceived in 2003 and born in 2005 with the launch of its first report and country profiles, the Countdown to 2015 for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Survival has reached its originally ...proposed lifespan. Major reductions in the deaths of mothers and children have occurred since Countdown's inception, even though most of the 75 priority countries failed to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. The coverage of life-saving interventions tracked in Countdown increased steadily over time, but wide inequalities persist between and within countries. Key drivers of coverage such as financing, human resources, commodities, and conducive health policies also showed important, yet insufficient increases. As a multistakeholder initiative of more than 40 academic, international, bilateral, and civil society institutions, Countdown was successful in monitoring progress and raising the visibility of the health of mothers, newborns, and children. Lessons learned from this initiative have direct bearing on monitoring progress during the Sustainable Development Goals era.
Efforts to establish the 2015 baseline and monitor early implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight both great potential for and threats to improving health by 2030. To ...fully deliver on the SDG aim of “leaving no one behind”, it is increasingly important to examine the health-related SDGs beyond national-level estimates. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017), we measured progress on 41 of 52 health-related SDG indicators and estimated the health-related SDG index for 195 countries and territories for the period 1990–2017, projected indicators to 2030, and analysed global attainment.
We measured progress on 41 health-related SDG indicators from 1990 to 2017, an increase of four indicators since GBD 2016 (new indicators were health worker density, sexual violence by non-intimate partners, population census status, and prevalence of physical and sexual violence reported separately). We also improved the measurement of several previously reported indicators. We constructed national-level estimates and, for a subset of health-related SDGs, examined indicator-level differences by sex and Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile. We also did subnational assessments of performance for selected countries. To construct the health-related SDG index, we transformed the value for each indicator on a scale of 0–100, with 0 as the 2·5th percentile and 100 as the 97·5th percentile of 1000 draws calculated from 1990 to 2030, and took the geometric mean of the scaled indicators by target. To generate projections through 2030, we used a forecasting framework that drew estimates from the broader GBD study and used weighted averages of indicator-specific and country-specific annualised rates of change from 1990 to 2017 to inform future estimates. We assessed attainment of indicators with defined targets in two ways: first, using mean values projected for 2030, and then using the probability of attainment in 2030 calculated from 1000 draws. We also did a global attainment analysis of the feasibility of attaining SDG targets on the basis of past trends. Using 2015 global averages of indicators with defined SDG targets, we calculated the global annualised rates of change required from 2015 to 2030 to meet these targets, and then identified in what percentiles the required global annualised rates of change fell in the distribution of country-level rates of change from 1990 to 2015. We took the mean of these global percentile values across indicators and applied the past rate of change at this mean global percentile to all health-related SDG indicators, irrespective of target definition, to estimate the equivalent 2030 global average value and percentage change from 2015 to 2030 for each indicator.
The global median health-related SDG index in 2017 was 59·4 (IQR 35·4–67·3), ranging from a low of 11·6 (95% uncertainty interval 9·6–14·0) to a high of 84·9 (83·1–86·7). SDG index values in countries assessed at the subnational level varied substantially, particularly in China and India, although scores in Japan and the UK were more homogeneous. Indicators also varied by SDI quintile and sex, with males having worse outcomes than females for non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality, alcohol use, and smoking, among others. Most countries were projected to have a higher health-related SDG index in 2030 than in 2017, while country-level probabilities of attainment by 2030 varied widely by indicator. Under-5 mortality, neonatal mortality, maternal mortality ratio, and malaria indicators had the most countries with at least 95% probability of target attainment. Other indicators, including NCD mortality and suicide mortality, had no countries projected to meet corresponding SDG targets on the basis of projected mean values for 2030 but showed some probability of attainment by 2030. For some indicators, including child malnutrition, several infectious diseases, and most violence measures, the annualised rates of change required to meet SDG targets far exceeded the pace of progress achieved by any country in the recent past. We found that applying the mean global annualised rate of change to indicators without defined targets would equate to about 19% and 22% reductions in global smoking and alcohol consumption, respectively; a 47% decline in adolescent birth rates; and a more than 85% increase in health worker density per 1000 population by 2030.
The GBD study offers a unique, robust platform for monitoring the health-related SDGs across demographic and geographic dimensions. Our findings underscore the importance of increased collection and analysis of disaggregated data and highlight where more deliberate design or targeting of interventions could accelerate progress in attaining the SDGs. Current projections show that many health-related SDG indicators, NCDs, NCD-related risks, and violence-related indicators will require a concerted shift away from what might have driven past gains—curative interventions in the case of NCDs—towards multisectoral, prevention-oriented policy action and investments to achieve SDG aims. Notably, several targets, if they are to be met by 2030, demand a pace of progress that no country has achieved in the recent past. The future is fundamentally uncertain, and no model can fully predict what breakthroughs or events might alter the course of the SDGs. What is clear is that our actions—or inaction—today will ultimately dictate how close the world, collectively, can get to leaving no one behind by 2030.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Robotic surgery Diana, M.; Marescaux, J.
British journal of surgery,
01/2015, Volume:
102, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Background
Proficiency in minimally invasive surgery requires intensive and continuous training, as it is technically challenging for unnatural visual and haptic perceptions. Robotic and computer ...sciences are producing innovations to augment the surgeon's skills to achieve accuracy and high precision during complex surgery. This article reviews the current use of robotically assisted surgery, focusing on technology as well as main applications in digestive surgery, and future perspectives.
Methods
The PubMed database was interrogated to retrieve evidence‐based data on surgical applications. Internal and external consulting with key opinion leaders, renowned robotics laboratories and robotic platform manufacturers was used to produce state‐of‐the art business intelligence around robotically assisted surgery.
Results
Selected digestive procedures (oesophagectomy, gastric bypass, pancreatic and liver resections, rectal resection for cancer) might benefit from robotic assistance, although the current level of evidence is insufficient to support widespread adoption. The surgical robotic market is growing, and a variety of projects have recently been launched at both academic and corporate levels to develop lightweight, miniaturized surgical robotic prototypes.
Conclusion
The magnified view, and improved ergonomics and dexterity offered by robotic platforms, might facilitate the uptake of minimally invasive procedures. Image guidance to complement robotically assisted procedures, through the concepts of augmented reality, could well represent a major revolution to increase safety and deal with difficulties associated with the new minimally invasive approaches.
March of the robots
The aim of this analysis was to provide comprehensive information on the access to and use of cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) and catheter ablation therapy in the European Society of ...Cardiology (ESC) area.
The European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) has been collecting descriptive and quantitative data on invasive arrhythmia therapies since 2008. This year 50 of the 56 ESC member countries provided data for the EHRA White Book. Up-to-date information on procedure rates for the last 5 years together with information on demographics, economy, vital statistics, local healthcare systems, and training activities is presented for each country and the 5 geographical ESC regions. Our analysis indicated that considerable heterogeneity in the access to arrhythmia therapies still exists across the ESC area. In 2015, the CIED implantation rates per million population were highest in the Western followed by the Southern and Northern European countries. The catheter ablation activity was largest in the Western followed by the Northern and Southern areas. Overall, the procedure rates were 3-10 times higher in the European than in the non-European ESC countries. Economic resources were not the only driver for utilization of arrhythmia therapies as in some Eastern European countries with relative low gross domestic product the procedure rates exceeded the average values.
These data will help the healthcare professionals and stakeholders to identify and to understand in more depth the trends, disparities, and gaps in cardiac arrhythmia care and thereby promote harmonization of cardiac arrhythmias therapies in the ESC area.
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